Lively v. Baldoni: PR-based Litigation Strategies and Implications on Trial Fairness Doctrine
By: Stella Seitz
Edited by: Christina Ding and Tulsi Patel
The media’s intervention in legal proceedings has repeatedly resulted in mistrials or appeals due to concerns about prejudice and legal ethics [1]. As a result, the American Bar Association developed twelve rules to help legal professionals ethically navigate the effects of media on legal proceedings. These guidelines help protect client privacy and restrict lawyers from contacting witnesses and parties by pretext [2]. Still, the media's influence significantly affects case outcomes, often undermining the integrity of the legal system by compromising the trial fairness doctrine.
The trial fairness doctrine is a restriction on US courtroom broadcasting that requires radio and TV news stations to provide adequate coverage of public issues and to present opposing perspectives on them. Legal communications strategies have become integral to criminal defense, with attorneys relying on media-based approaches to promote favorable public images of their clients. The Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni legal dispute, which began in 2024, exemplifies this phenomenon, serving as a recent example in a history of court cases involving celebrity plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses that affect both the court of public opinion and the judicial system.
From 2023 to 2024, Baldoni directed the film “It Ends With Us” featuring Lively, his co-star, and produced it through Wayfarer Studios. Soon, media outlets reported alleged disagreements between Baldoni and Lively on the set regarding the portrayal of characters and scenes. In addition, many film critics disapproved of how Lively marketed “It Ends With Us,” which addresses deeply sensitive issues like domestic abuse and generational trauma.
Facing increased public scrutiny, Lively filed a complaint in December 2024 with the California Civil Rights Department, naming Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, its co-founders, and associated PR firms as defendants [4]. The complaint listed ten damages, including sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy [5]. In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and The New York Times for their coverage of the complaint on Jan. 16, 2025. However, Judge Lewis Liman dismissed the allegations, ruling that the lawsuit was baseless and retaliatory. The dismissal was followed by a lawsuit by The Times in October 2025 against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, seeking $150,000 in legal fees. Lively’s legal team filed yet another lawsuit, in October 2025, alleging that the Baldoni camp destroyed and concealed evidence relevant to the case. Her lawyers argued that they deleted “auto-expiring” signal messages linked to the mud-slinging campaign against Lively so they could not be submitted to discovery as evidence. They have requested sanctions to restrict Baldoni’s defense from denying the smear campaign’s existence at trial, and several bystanders have corroborated Lively’s claim [4].
The trial for Blake Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, and others is set for March 2026. In preparation, Baldoni hired Alexandra Shapiro—whose legal roster includes Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean "Diddy" Combs—as his primary defense. Shapiro is known for her media-savvy defense tactics, often using social media and the press to craft positive narratives surrounding her clients and negative narratives about her opponents. As such, her strategy in the Baldoni v. Lively trial emphasizes a carefully crafted public media campaign to improve his standing in the eyes of the jury and the public overall before the trial even begins. Baldoni and his legal team have already been pursuing an aggressive PR strategy ahead of the official legal proceedings for the case. They released 10 minutes of footage taken during filming, aiming to debunk Lively’s claim that Baldoni sexually harassed her during filming of the scene, which featured a slow dance between their characters. Baldoni’s Legal Team said the video “clearly refute[s] Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior” and shows both actors acting with “mutual respect and professionalism” [6]. The tape is too ambiguous to prove or refute claims made by either side. Still, the Baldoni team’s commentary aims to frame the evidence in a way that favors him, possibly to cement a favorable narrative for their client in the eyes of the jury members eventually selected for the trial. Lively’s team responded to the footage and accompanying caption, flipping the narrative, claiming the video is “damning” and supports her recollection of events [6]. They label the video as a “stunt” that the Baldoni camp is leveraging to “get ahead of the damning evidence against him” [6]. As the next step in their PR campaign, Baldoni’s team launched a public website called TheLawsuitInfo.com featuring the amended complaint against Lively and a 168-page timeline of events intended to corroborate his side of events [7].
The events in Lively v. Baldoni have been highly publicized. The media strongly influences legal proceedings because opinions can significantly affect court outcomes [8]. An effective litigation communications strategy monitors public opinion through social media, responds to posts that disfavor clients, leverages influencers and ally connections, engages in proactive media outreach, and even consults psychology experts on how best to influence public opinion and increase the likelihood of positive bias [9]. Both sides employed these strategies to outline an effective public response ahead of the trial date.
Media-savvy legal strategies are not new. In “Effectively Handling High-Profile and Celebrity Cases,” Thomas Mesereau Jr., a criminal defense lawyer famous for securing an acquittal for Michael Jackson following his 2005 child molestation case, stresses the importance of leveraging the media in celebrity cases. He writes how lawyers must calculate how best to spin a client’s position to promote their best qualities to viewers. In People of the State of California v. Michael Joe Jackson, Mesereau skewed public perception by humanizing Jackson and focusing on his redeeming qualities. Regarding the 1995 People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson case, Mesereau discusses the media-savvy strategies that OJ Simpson’s lawyers employed to secure his acquittal after he was accused of murdering his wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. They portrayed Simpson as a victim of racist and dishonest police officers and allowed the trial to be highly televised, which enabled them to construct a defense narrative that reached an even larger audience. By leveraging racial tension and fears of political misconduct prevalent in Los Angeles at the time, they effectively manipulated public perceptions to favor Simpson, ultimately aiding his successful judicial outcome [10].
Despite the efficacy of such strategies, the goal of social media is rarely justice. The controversy surrounding the ruling in Simpson’s case proves that litigation through the press is not always an effective means of achieving a rightful decision. Simpson was found liable in civil court, for which his estate agreed to pay $58 million to Goldman’s family in November 2025, proving his involvement in the deaths of his wife and Goldman, though he was acquitted in criminal court [11]. The PR campaigns of the Lively and Baldoni camps could adversely affect the outcome of the case.
The American Bar Association highlights the prevalence of juror misconduct involving social media: jurors’ independent research of cases, against the court’s wishes, can fray the validity and fairness of a trial. Furthermore, anonymity and ease of access provided by social media platforms make it challenging to monitor and control juror behavior outside the courtroom. The Courtroom Sciences Institute emphasizes how social media algorithms are designed to show content that aligns with users' preferences. As a result, individuals are referred to content that confirms their preconceived notions, oftentimes producing echo chambers where users’ opinions are repeatedly validated, and counterperspectives are dismissed. In high-profile cases such as Lively v. Baldoni, public perception could become increasingly staunch and polarized as a result of discourse on social media platforms, in which different sides hold staunchly to potentially erroneous or biased conclusions [8]. Therefore, whichever side can leverage social media more astutely will increase its chances of a favorable outcome in court.
Social media can influence the outcomes of judicial proceedings in the United States [12]. Rather than evidence being admitted and reviewed before being presented in court, any image, video, or other piece of content can be shared freely via social media with captions to bias public opinion. The basis of the fair trial doctrine holds that individuals should be innocent until proven guilty. Competing public narratives in the Lively v. Baldoni disputes show how difficult it is to uphold this doctrine, likely leading individuals to form staunch opinions months before the court session begins. As the Lively and Baldoni teams attempt to manage public opinion effectively, they overlook any potential ethical questions that their pre-trial defense strategies raise. With the court date still months away, the legal teams are likely to continue using PR to construct favorable narratives about their respective defendants. It is yet to be seen whether the Lively and Baldoni teams’ use of the media will result in a mistrial or appeal due to concerns over legal ethics and jury prejudice.
Nevertheless, the implications of litigation through the press are sure to be far-reaching and consequential for the future of criminal court proceedings and ethical litigation communications strategies. Rather than only considering evidence that is regarded as verifiable enough to be presented in court, the future jury’s opinion will be influenced by all of the information they consume on social media before the trial. This contamination of information could potentially undermine the credibility of the jury and their ability to make a non-biased verdict. Therefore, while social media tactics are undoubtedly necessary for any legal strategy with high-profile plaintiffs and defendants, media-based litigation can have adverse effects on the integrity of the trial, potentially threatening the ability of the justice system to achieve fair outcomes.
Notes:
1. Courtroom Sciences. “Strategies for Managing Public Opinion in Litigation.” Courtroom Sciences, November 9, 2024. https://www.courtroomsciences.com/litigation-consulting-1/strategies-for-managing-public-opinion-in-litigation-778/.
2. Siegel, Daniel J. “Ethics Corner: 12 Rules for Ethically Dealing with Social Media.” American Bar Association, American Bar Association, 16 Feb. 2017, www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2017-february/ethics-corner/.
3. Gonzalez, Shivani. “‘It Ends With Us’: The Press Tour Drama, Explained.” The New York Times, August 16, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/movies/it-ends-with-us-controversy-blake-lively-justin-baldoni.html.
4. Zumpano, Bianca. “It Ends With a Lawsuit: The Lively/Baldoni Disputes So Far.” Syracuse Law Review, January 25, 2025. https://lawreview.syr.edu/it-ends-with-a-lawsuit-the-lively-baldoni-disputes-so-far/.
5. Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, et al., Complaint for Damages, United States District Court, Central District of California, filed 2025, PDF file, accessed November 17, 2025, https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/1629cc34e562e325/4410b1d9-full.pdf
6. Geigner, Timothy. “Justin Baldoni’s Legal Team Decides to Wage a PR War before Trial.” Techdirt, January 24, 2025. https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/24/justin-baldonis-legal-team-decides-to-wage-a-pr-war-before-trial/.
7. The Lawsuit Info. Accessed November 17, 2025. https://www.thelawsuitinfo.com/
8. Ebenezer Kojo Gyesi Mensah, “Assessing the Role of Media Influence and Public Perception in Legal Decision-Making” (working paper, April 29, 2024), SSRN, https://ssrn.com/abstract=4811277.
9. Courtroom Sciences. “Strategies for Managing Public Opinion in Litigation.” Courtroom Sciences, November 9, 2024. https://www.courtroomsciences.com/litigation-consulting-1/strategies-for-managing-public-opinion-in-litigation-778/.
10. Mesereau, Tom. “Effectively Handling High-Profile and Celebrity Cases.” Mesereau Law Group, January 18, 2021. https://mesereaulaw.com/effectively-handling-high-profile-and-celebrity-cases/.
11. Kaur, Brahmjot. "O.J. Simpson's Estate to Pay $57 Million to Ron Goldman's Dad." E! News. November 17, 2025. https://www.eonline.com/news/1425155/o-j-simpsons-estate-to-pay-s57-million-to-ron-goldmans-dad.
12. St. Eve, Amy J., and Michael A. Zuckerman. “Ensuring an Impartial Jury in the Age of Social Media.” Duke Law & Technology Review 11 (2012). https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dltr/vol11/iss1/1/.
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